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Article
Publication date: 23 December 2021

Adel Hanna and Wenxue Chen

This article aims to address an outstanding problem dealing with the structure and its foundation.

Abstract

Purpose

This article aims to address an outstanding problem dealing with the structure and its foundation.

Design/methodology/approach

Differential settlement between foundation units of a multistory structure has been responsible for serious damage to buildings and often catastrophic failure and loss of life. The dynamic changes in the loading conditions of the structure, and the variability of the underlying ground due to environmental changes, are causing the undesirable differential settlement, which is manifested in the form of additional stresses in beams, columns and distortion of the structure elements. The structural response to the differential settlements depends on the type of the structure (concrete or steel), type of beam-to-column connections (rigid or semi-rigid), number of floors and the spans of the beams in the building. This paper presents the results of a numerical model, which was developed using the finite element technique and the software “ABAQUS” to analyze a nine-floor steel structure. The model was capable to capture the stresses and the strains developed in beams and columns and the relationships of moment–settlement and rotation–settlement for the structural during the differential settlement of its foundation. After validating of the model, data were produced for a wide range of governing parameters for rigid and semi-rigid connections and accordingly the mode of failure. The results can be used as a guideline for the design of steel structures.

Findings

Results are useful for those design steel structures.

Research limitations/implications

This study is based on the experimental and numerical data of the authors.

Practical implications

This study provides a guideline for the design of steel structures.

Originality/value

This is the original research developed by the authors.

Details

International Journal of Structural Integrity, vol. 13 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-9864

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 February 2024

Helen Jane Liebling, Hazel Rose Barrett, Lillian Artz and Ayesha Shahid

The study aimed to listen to refugee survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and/or torture and explore what justice meant to them in exile. This study argues that…

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Abstract

Purpose

The study aimed to listen to refugee survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and/or torture and explore what justice meant to them in exile. This study argues that what the survivors who participated in this research wanted was “viable justice”. The research was funded by the British Academy and Leverhulme Trust.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a survivor-focussed justice lens combined with a trauma-informed approach, narrative interviews were held with 41 women and 20 men refugee survivors living in refugee settlements in Northern Uganda. The researchers also conducted semi-structured interviews with 37 key informants including refugee welfare councils, the UN, civil society, non-government and government organisations. Thematic analysis of the data resulted in the following themes being identified: no hope of formal justice for atrocities that occurred in South Sudan; insecurity; lack of confidence in transitional justice processes in Ugandan refugee settlements; abuse and loss of freedom in refugee settlements; and lack of access to health and justice services in refugee settlements.

Findings

This study argues that what the survivors who participated in this research wanted was “viable justice”. That is justice that is survivor-centred and includes elements of traditional and transitional justice, underpinned by social justice. By including the voices of both men and women survivors of SGBV and/or torture and getting the views of service providers and other stakeholders, this paper offers an alternative form of justice to the internationally accepted types of justice, which offer little relevance or restitution to refugees, particularly where the crime has been committed in a different country and where there is little chance that perpetrators will be prosecuted in a formal court of law.

Research limitations/implications

The research findings are based on a small sample of South Sudanese refugees living in three refugee settlements in Northern Uganda. Thus, wider conclusions should not be drawn. However, the research does suggest that a “viable justice” approach should be implemented that is gender and culturally sensitive and which could also be trialled in different refugee contexts.

Practical implications

Improvements in refugee survivors’ dignity, resilience and recovery are dependent upon the active engagement of refugees themselves using a “survivor-focussed approach” which combines formal and community-based health services with traditional and transitional justice responses.

Social implications

The provision of a “viable justice approach” ensures those who have experienced SGBV and/or torture, and their families, feel validated. It will assist them to use their internal, cultural and traditional resilience and agency in the process of recovery.

Originality/value

The research findings are original in that data was collected from men and women survivors of SGBV and/or torture and service providers. The empirical evidence supports this study’s recommendation for an approach that combines both formal and survivor-focussed approaches towards health and viable justice services to meet the needs of refugees living in refugee settlements. This is a response that listens to and responds to the needs of refugee survivors in a way that continues to build their resilience and agency and restores their dignity.

Details

International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, vol. 20 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-9894

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 22 December 2023

Nafiz Zaman Shuva

Although there is a growing body of work on immigrants' information behavior, little is known about the pre-arrival information experiences of immigrants who consult formal…

1394

Abstract

Purpose

Although there is a growing body of work on immigrants' information behavior, little is known about the pre-arrival information experiences of immigrants who consult formal information sources such as immigration agents. Drawn from a larger study on the information behavior of immigrants, this paper mainly reports the semi-structured interview findings on the pre-arrival information experiences of Bangladeshi immigrants who used formal information sources with discussion on how that affected their post-arrival settlement into Canada.

Design/methodology/approach

The study used a mixed method approach with semi-structured interviews (n = 60) and surveys (n = 205) with participants who arrived in Canada between the years of 1971 and 2017. Data were collected from May 2017 to February 2018.

Findings

Although the overall scope of the original study is much larger, this paper features findings on the pre-arrival information experiences derived mainly from an analysis of interview data. This study provides insights into the pre-arrival information experiences of Bangladeshi immigrants consulting formal information sources such as immigration firms, individual immigration consultants and more formal government agencies. The author introduces a new concept of “information crafting” by exploring the negative consequences of selective information sharing by immigration consultants/agents in newcomers' settlements in Canada, primarily positive information about life in Canada, sometimes with exaggeration and falsification. The interview participants shared story after the story of the settlement challenges they faced after arriving in Canada and how the expectations they built through the information received from immigration consultants and government agencies did not match after arrival. This study emphasizes the importance of providing comprehensive information about life in Canada to potential newcomers so that they can make informed decisions even before they apply.

Originality/value

The findings of this study have theoretical and practical implications for policy and research. This study provides insights into the complicated culturally situated pre-arrival information experiences of Bangladeshi immigrants. Moreover, the study findings encourage researchers in various disciplines, including psychology, migration studies and geography, to delve more deeply into newcomers' information experiences using an informational lens to examine the information newcomers receive from diverse sources and their effects on their post-arrival settlement in a new country. The study challenges the general assumptions that formal information sources are always reputable, useful, and comprehensive, and it provides some future directions for research that seeks to understand the culturally situated information behavior of diverse immigrant groups.

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 2 November 2023

Johannes Bhanye

Compared to younger and older generation migrants, middle-aged migrants in the diaspora seem to be more conflicted regarding their belonging. This paper aims to explore how…

Abstract

Purpose

Compared to younger and older generation migrants, middle-aged migrants in the diaspora seem to be more conflicted regarding their belonging. This paper aims to explore how middle-aged migrants in the diaspora define themselves in space and time.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork done among Malawian migrants (herein referred to as Lydiatians) settled at Lydiate informal settlement in peri-urban Zimbabwe.

Findings

The paper reveals that, while younger migrants have a “radical transnational stance”, and older migrants regard their place of settlement as their final home, middle-aged migrants prefer to maintain a “strategic dual sense of place” regarding their place of settlement in the diaspora. These middle-aged migrants can be entrepreneurs considering their current settlement as a strategic place for petty commodity trading or those who find informal settlements to provide needed opportunities for cheap housing as the migrants pursue work in the nearby towns.

Practical implications

The paper offers a deeper understanding of how middle-aged migrants navigate their sense of place and contribute to host nations by functioning as key resources, dynamizing local economies through entrepreneurial activities and labour provision for various industries. The implications of this research should encourage states to positively interact with migrants, leveraging their potential for societal and economic development.

Originality/value

The finding that migrants in the diaspora have a dual, strategic view of their settlements is fascinating, if not new. Before this, scholars presented migrants as transnational figures, successively moving to a better place, which finally becomes home. However, the data presented in this paper suggests that this characterization associating migrants with maintaining a “stable, sedentary, bounded and fixed perception of home” is oversimplified. This is because migrants can sometimes continue to cherish the idea of informal settlements in the diaspora as home, just as the migrants also entertain the nearby established towns as useful places in their life.

Details

International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, vol. 19 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-9894

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 January 2023

Wenxue Chen and Adel Hanna

This article aims to address an outstanding problem dealing with the structure of multi-story buildings subjected to differential settlement of the building's foundation.

Abstract

Purpose

This article aims to address an outstanding problem dealing with the structure of multi-story buildings subjected to differential settlement of the building's foundation.

Design/methodology/approach

Differential settlement between foundation units of multi-story structures has been responsible for causing damage to buildings and often catastrophic failure and loss of life. The dynamic changes in the loading conditions of the structure and the changes in the underlying ground due to environmental changes are causing this undesirable differential settlement, which is manifested in the form of additional stresses in beams, columns and distortion of the structure elements. This study presents the results of an experimental investigation on a prototype model of a multi-story building subjected to differential settlement of the building's foundation. The model is a four-floor aluminum structure, instrumented to measure the stresses induced in the structure elements due to the settlement of a center, edge and corner column, respectively, which represent the critical conditions of the structure.

Findings

The experimental results of this study can be used as a guideline for the design of structures.

Originality/value

The current study is the original research developed by the authors.

Details

International Journal of Structural Integrity, vol. 14 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-9864

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 May 2019

Zhi Ding, Xinjiang Wei, Xiao Zhang and Xinsheng Yin

The shield tunnels closely constructed near the foundations have an inevitable influence on the structures, even results in the large settlement or uplift of the structures.

Abstract

Purpose

The shield tunnels closely constructed near the foundations have an inevitable influence on the structures, even results in the large settlement or uplift of the structures.

Design/methodology/approach

The comparison of structural deformation of three different foundations is presented based on the field monitoring data.

Findings

Shield tunnelling parameters vary for the different types of foundations. For the long pile foundations, the recommended speed is 3 to 4 cm/min, the grouting pressure is about 0.3 MPa and the grouting rate ranges from 150 to 180.

Originality/value

The study based on the field monitoring data is rarely reported, especially the topic about the structural deformation of different types of the foundations.

Details

Engineering Computations, vol. 36 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-4401

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 April 2019

Dorina Pojani

While a substantial amount of study of informal settlements has been undertaken, they remain largely unstudied in terms of urban form. In this analysis, the purpose of this paper…

1144

Abstract

Purpose

While a substantial amount of study of informal settlements has been undertaken, they remain largely unstudied in terms of urban form. In this analysis, the purpose of this paper is to set forth a conceptual framework, which considers the context in which informality takes place, the settlement itself, the houses contained therein, the dwellers of those houses and the process through which a settlement is designed and transformed over time.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a literature review.

Findings

This framework aims to be sufficiently flexible to be deployed across diverse national settings. Its formulation is important because informal settlements are a permanent fixture of the global urban landscape, and are increasing in scale.

Originality/value

Any sustainable strategies to improve informal settlements depend on a better understanding of their urban space, as well as of the producers of this space – the residents themselves. Finally, professional designers may be able to learn from this contemporary urban vernacular grammar – perhaps the only one left in the era of sanitized, contrived and prosaic urban design.

Details

Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research, vol. 13 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2631-6862

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 January 2020

James Patrick Miller

Historically, post-disaster reconstruction policies and practice ignore the embedded knowledge of the affected population; the process following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti…

Abstract

Purpose

Historically, post-disaster reconstruction policies and practice ignore the embedded knowledge of the affected population; the process following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti followed this trend. This paper aims to examine the production of social space in self-settled post-disaster settlements in Leogane and Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the paper demonstrates the role that traditional settlement patterns played in the production of social capital.

Design/methodology/approach

A multi-sited case study approach was implemented to uncover the patterns of the lakou, which is a primary Haitian, traditional settlement pattern reflecting the familial social structure, present in self-settled post-disaster settlements. The study took place between February and June of 2012, two years after the 2010 earthquake across settlements in Leogane and Port-au-Prince. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 40 inhabitants across the settlements to uncover meanings attached to the creation of space. Together with behavior mapping and participant observations, the interviews were analyzed to validate the reproduction of the lakou.

Findings

This paper demonstrates that endogenous inhabitants create the lakou in post-disaster settlements in Haiti. This case study validates the resilience of the lakou, the inclusive nature of the lakou system, and the important role it plays in the production of social capital within post-disaster communities.

Originality/value

This study demonstrates the importance of traditional settlement patterns in post-disaster community well-being and it demonstrates the need to incorporate traditional settlement patterns into post-disaster planning strategies. Furthermore, the study validates that traditional settlement patterns support the production of social capital within a community.

Details

International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, vol. 11 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1759-5908

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 November 2020

Nafiz Zaman Shuva

Studies on the information behaviour of immigrants including refugees across the globe show a significant dependency of immigrants on their informal networks for meeting various…

Abstract

Purpose

Studies on the information behaviour of immigrants including refugees across the globe show a significant dependency of immigrants on their informal networks for meeting various settlement and everyday life information needs. Although there are quite a few studies in LIS that globally report the dependency of immigrants on their personal networks, very little is known about their experiences with their informal personal networks in the contexts of their settlement in informational terms. This paper explores the information experiences of Bangladeshi immigrants in Canada consulting informal networks including broader Bangladeshi community people in pre- and post-arrival contexts.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses a mixed-method approach including semi-structured interviews (n = 60) and surveys (n = 205) with Bangladeshi immigrants who arrived in Canada between the years of 1971 and 2017. Interview data were analysed thematically, and descriptive statistics are used to describe the survey data relevant to this study.

Findings

Although the overall scope of the original study is much larger, this paper features findings on the information experience derived from an analysis of the interview data with some relevant references to the survey data when deemed appropriate. This paper provides insights into the information experiences of Bangladeshi immigrants within their personal networks, including friends, family and ethnic community people. The findings of this study show that participants sometimes received discouraging, unhelpful or wrong information from their personal networks. The multiple dimensions of the information experiences of the study participants show the many consequences for their settlement lives. For some participants, settlement was particularly impacted by the concept of “information sharing fear” that emerged from the interviews. Information sharing fear relates to concerns that sharing information about the challenges faced by newcomers could be considered by potential immigrants as a kind of active “discouragement”. Participants described being sensitive to charges of envy or jealousy when they shared information related to challenges newcomers face, as friends and family see them as trying to prevent competition for social status.

Originality/value

The findings related to the information experiences of immigrants consulting informal networks has potential implications for research in various discipline such as LIS, migrational studies and psychology that explore the benefits of social networks in newcomers' settlement. The study also sets a ground to take a more holistic approach to the information experiences of newcomers, not just naming the sources newcomers utilize in settlement and everyday life contexts. The study also provides some future directions to comprehensively understand the culturally situated information behaviour of various immigrant groups.

Article
Publication date: 4 December 2017

Hong-Youl Ha, Jang-Gyem Kim and Yongkyun Chung

The purpose of this paper is to select the best model among alternative models explaining the relationship maintenance in mediation.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to select the best model among alternative models explaining the relationship maintenance in mediation.

Design/methodology/approach

Four alternative models are employed in order to select best fit model through the test of each construct using Korean and Indonesian firm data.

Findings

The settlement model out of four alternative models is the best fit model in both Korea and Indonesia. The nexus of experience-settlement is not similar between Korea and Indonesia. The nexus of cost-saving-settlement is similar between two countries.

Practical implications

The field manager and policy maker get useful information from the findings. In particular, Korea and Indonesia belong to different cultural clusters.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the mediation literature through the suggestion of hypothesized model of relationship maintenance intention in mediation.

Details

Journal of Korea Trade, vol. 21 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1229-828X

Keywords

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